The Seminoles battle against NC State and UNC in tough ACC matchups

Feb. 13, 2013

Written by

Mat Hooper

Staff Writer @HooperTV

It is a weekend of rematches for the No. 19 Florida State women’s basketball team as they first take on NC State on Thursday, followed by a showdown against North Carolina on Sunday.

The two teams come into Tallahassee with very different records. The Wolfpack is coming in at .500, sitting with a 12-12 (4-8 ACC) record, in contrast to the Tar Heels’ 22-3 (10-2 ACC) record and No. 14 AP Poll ranking.

The Seminoles, who are 19-4 (9-3), didn’t cruise to a win against either team, though. They inched out a victory against NC State thanks to a 12-0 run that began with less than five minutes to play, and lost to UNC pretty handily thanks to a strong first half by the Tar Heels.

Both games were in the rival’s home though, and things might prove different when the Seminoles are in the comfortable confines of the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Florida State shot 3-for-15 (20 percent) in each game against the two North Carolina teams, even though the team is shooting .362 from beyond the arch on the season. If they can shoot closer to their season average in Tallahassee, then they may manage a victory against NC State and possibly pull off an upset against UNC.

The Seminoles are coming off an impressive road win against Miami in which Florida State was without two of its top-five leading scorers. They had to play small, starting four guards, but it proved not to slow down the Seminoles at all. Six starters were able to score double-digit points, and the team as a whole shot 53.8 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from three-point range. It would be nice to see the full team suit up for the upcoming games, but they’ve shown that they can still win without that.

Both NC State and UNC come into the weekend having won four of their last five games, which is quite a feat for the Wolfpack which, at one point in this season, sustained a six-game losing streak. It’s easy to underestimate them, but they’ll definitely be fired up for this game.

No firing up will be needed Sunday when the Tar Heels are in town. It’ll be the Seminoles’ fifth game against a ranked opponent and second played at home. Florida State won their first game against Miami in mid-January. It’ll be the eighth ranked matchup for North Carolina, with the Heels having won four out of seven of them. They have yet to win a ranked game on the road though, and hopefully FSU won’t change that.

The Wolfpack will be led by junior forward Kody Burke and senior guard Marissa Kastanek.

The 6’2” Burke comes into the game averaging 14 points and 7.3 rebounds and recorded 16 points and eight rebounds against the Seminoles earlier in the season. Kastanek shot 50 percent from the field and went 2-for-5 from beyond the arch, recording 14 points in the opening game.

The Tar Heels are led by their bigs, 6’2” freshman forward Xylina McDaniel and 6’6” senior center Waltiea Rolle. The duo combined for 37 points and 16 rebounds in the first game against the Seminoles, and could surpass those numbers with some of the Seminole bigs questionable these last couple games. Senior forward Tierra Ruffin-Pratt is the catalyst of the offense ,though, leading the team in scoring with 14.1 points per game and in assist with 4.6 per game.